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Heard on the Hill: What the Frack? Dino Explains Drilling

Do you ever wish complex environmental issues could be explained by a cartoon dinosaur?

Talisman Energy USA, a “natural gas exploration and production company,” has heard you and has put out a coloring book to explain fracking to all of us. (Thanks, Grist.org, for finding this gem.)

The fracking book stars Talisman Terry, your friendly Fracosaurus! Terry explains hydrolic fracturing, also known as fracking, in 12 happy fracking pages.

Natural gas “is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful of all energy sources,” Terry the Fracosaurus says.

On the next page there is a picture of the world “after drilling.” It has a smiling sun, a happy little deer, a rainbow and a fracking drill thing. The page that follows shows the world “during drilling,” which even in Terry’s world seems less inviting.

“During the drilling process, you may see a lot of big equipment, including a drill rig, large trucks and tanks of water,” Terry says.

The trucks are pretty cool, but the boxy buildings, cylinders and scary fracking drills look like something out of the Soviet Union’s school of urban design.

Don’t worry though, kids. Even during the drilling there’s a smiley sun and an American flag, so it isn’t a completely happy-free zone.

“Because there is only so much gas under the ground, one day the well stops producing gas,” Terry the Fracosaurus says. “At this time, the well is closed, and the land is reclaimed and returned to the way it was before Talisman came to drill.”

Moral of the story? No harm, no foul.

Download a copy of Terry’s Fracking Coloring Book here.

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